ted.com/talks/christopher_m...
My niece visited recently and during conversation she was amazed that I'd never heard of Ted Talks. As I'm currently laid up and have time on my hands I had a look and found this. Copy and paste the link to see Christopher McDougall's talk.
I'm not suggesting we all take up barefoot running. It's a different technique and personally I think I'm way too old to start.
Yours
Bruce
The kind of barefoot running that involves wearing vibram fivefingers shoes has a long way to go before it's considered anything other than a bit weird. And actually, it's just as commodified as any other sort of footwear, so the free yourself from this that and the other angle needs to be taken with a huge pinch of vegan friendly low sodium salt substitute.
I agree. It was interesting though that, shoes aside, we all evolved to be long distance runners.
Absolutely ... it is in our DNA. I think unfortunately we've become a bit like the space puddings in Wall-E. 
I ran barefoot as a teenager in the 60s. But then I did everything barefoot. I used to walk miles in the countryside or along the lanes, running at intervals for the sheer joy of it. I wouldnt like to try it with the current crop of glass, cans, and other detritus that we’ve littered the landscape with. I still walk barefoot round the house and use very flat shoes, such as baseball boots, in good weather, so I would be happy to gradually lower the drop on my running shoes. At the moment they are 12mm. Having said all that, most of us run on tarmac or concrete, that are entirely unsuited to pounding along with bare feet. The barefoot movement was popular a few years ago, but I think people were getting impact injuries for the reason Ive just mentioned.
Going barefoot is a wonderful idea and research in India has shown that children who have never worn shoes have fewer medical issues with their feet than those who wear shoes.
So maybe we should all do it.
My problem is that I have spent most of the last thirty odd years wearing rigid steel toe capped safety boots with steel mid soles. My feet are soft and would not last long uncovered without major impact or puncture injury in our climate and environment. I doubt that "barefoot" shoes would provide enough protection for my delicate, footwear distorted leg appendages and in four and a half years I have had one running injury, but none since having gait analysis and buying appropriate supportive shoes.
If you build your running body slowly and train carefully, then I believe you can avoid running injuries and that most injuries are in fact caused by doing too much for your current level of adaptation, rather than because the shoes cause problems themselves.
It is a fascinating area for debate, but how many barefoot runners have you seen in the UK over the last couple of weeks of inclement weather.........maybe we should all move to California.
I remember the EVA cushioned soles taking off in the UK. In fact any sort of proper cushioning didn't seem to be around when I was a kid. I also remember running taking off as a fitness craze in the 70s. I was always running around in tennis shoes like Dunlop Green Flash before then.
I think my original post has sparked a conversation about barefoot running when it was the rest of McDougall's talk that I found more interesting.
My biggest problem is not my style or technique but the fact that I stopped running around after childhood.
Leaving aside the barefoot issue, the real problem I have always had with Chris McDougall is the fact that he presented his book Born to Run as if it were a factual non fiction document, and has continued to do so in talks and articles since. Other people who appear in the book, particularly Scott Jurek and Jen Shelton have gone on record as saying that much of the account has been embellished at best and in several places entirely made up.
Whilst some degree of literary licence is to be expected to make books interesting to read, McDougall presented and continues to present his work based on his journalistic credentials, and this seems disingenuous to put it mildly, particularly given the superhuman and oddly spiritual feats documented.
Barefoot running needs a clean debris and dog-poo free smooth running surface methinks 
I feel like a loser
Feeling like a failure
Wk6R1
Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.
